The Australian government’s digital identity app will be rebranded within months to avoid confusion with the popular services app ahead of the mass expansion of a $1 billion national digital identity system.
The Tax Office has settled on myID as the new name for what has been known as myGovID app since its launch in 2019 and already used by 13 million people to verify their identity for service access.
The changeover will occur in November and users will not need to do anything differently, with branding to change via an app update and existing accounts to carry over.
myID will continue to serve as an app that allows users to prove their identity to access online government services. It is often compared to the traditional 100-point ID check but on a smartphone.
There are around 13 million myGovIDs in existence, with around 9 million of these verified against traditional identity documents like drivers’ licences and passports. Around half of these verified myGovIDs also include a one-off face verification for additional security.
The credential became popular when it was offered as a password-free sign-in option on myGov in December 2020 and will be a key plank of the wider digital identity system set to expand across the economy later this year. It has already been used by Australians to access more than 150 personal and business services online.
But myGovID is often confused with its namesake services app, according to an audit of myGov last year.
“People have told the audit that navigating between the services is ‘too difficult to understand’, the process is ‘circular’ and ‘self-referencing’, and the overall experience is ‘dreadful’. These problems need to be fixed urgently,” the audit said.
The myGov audit recommended either combining myGovID and myGov into a single app – a costly project – or rebranding the credential to avoid confusion.
The Albanese government opted for the rebrand, allocating $11.5 million to the ATO in the last Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook for the change and other app improvements.
The rebrand comes as the government’s massive digital ID project that is being rolled out across the economy after a decade of development, new legislation and more than $1 billion in federal funding.
In May, the federal Budget set aside $288.1 million to continue the digital identity program for another four years and for the government to conduct a series of pilots with the private sector to expand the scheme.
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated the changeover to myID branding will occur in October. The changeover will occur in November.
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